The Latest Shaq Attack Plotted

Well, they have to start somewhere.

The Pacers have begun trying to figure out how they’re going to cover Shaquille O’Neal, who outscored their center, Rik Smits, 53-12, in two regular-season meetings.

“He’s the best player in the game,” Mark Jackson said. “We’ll watch him and break it down and come up with something.”

Good luck.

Unlike Portland’s Mike Dunleavy, whose Trail Blazers were adept at double-teaming and recovering, Pacer Coach Larry Bird says he doesn’t like to double-team because his players aren’t quick enough to get back to shooters.

He said that before Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals, noting he could just imagine the Knicks’ Larry Johnson being left open.

The next night, Johnson made five of five three-pointers.

Nevertheless, since Smits, who is 35 and isn’t rated as one of the league’s better defenders at the position, is clearly no match, Bird concedes the Pacers will double-team O’Neal at least some.

After the success Portland had in the last series, leaving Ron Harper or the Laker power forwards to double O’Neal and taking their chances, it would be surprising if the Pacers didn’t try some variation of the same tactic.

Good news for O’Neal: Bird says he won’t hack Shaq.

Well, not in Game 1, anyway.

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More good news for the Pacers: They play their best ball when they’re the underdogs.

“This team plays better under adversity rather than being the frontrunner,” Reggie Miller said. “We’re better when we’re not walking into a building with our chest out and everyone bowing down. We’re better walking in and saying, ‘OK, who we going after tonight?’ I don’t know why. Maybe it’s a reflection of me. I’ve always been the underdog. . . .

“They [teammates] like wearing the black hat. We don’t have too many John Waynes on this team.”

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Since the league went to a 2-3-2 format in the finals, no team has swept the three middle games at home. Bird is warning his players not to count on being the first.

“We’re going to have to win two [on the road],” Miller said. “There ain’t no way you’re going to beat one of those teams three in a row. That would be some serious playing.”

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Perkins and Zan Tabak, who was a lowly reserve with the Rockets, are the only Pacer players who have been in the finals before and Bird is warning everyone else what to expect.

“They’ll continue to look around and be amazed at what’s happening,” Bird said. “They have to stay focused and remember that basketball is the No. 1 priority. I think these guys will do that. But they really don’t have a clue what’s going to happen.”

Perkins, who will turn 39 in a week, plans to retire after this season. His first visit to the finals came as a Laker in 1991, on the team that lost in five games to the Bulls, after he won Game 1 with a late three-pointer. Perkins’ other visit to the finals came in 1996, on a Seattle team that also lost to the Bulls.